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Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

blender.org

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Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#71

As someone who's done lots of Blender work as well as Maya and integrations with Unity and Unreal Engine, I still think there's quite a long way to go to make Blender a good option for game development. It's free, it kind of works but it's very painful when it comes to animation, texturing, and details. Right now, this is what I usually do: - Basic Modeling: Blender - Sculpting + Details: ZBrush - Painting: Substance…

I'm curious why you would use Blender over Maya for modeling if you have both? I tried Blender a decade ago but since I had access to Maya & 3D Studio Max I didn't give it much attempt since the UI seemed more confusing & the material available to learn was lacking.

I'm curious too. I have only used Blender, I only do this as a hobby.

Ten years is a really long time though. Google's Go programming language didn't exist ten years ago.

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#72
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. And I have qualms over some of those things too. I guess it's a tricky one as toys are not really much different despite having a physical manifestation. I would have happily spent every penny I could get my hands on on Star Wars figures when I was of that age. Is marketing a useless blob of plastic to kids any different to marketing a useless bunch of bytes?

It's better for the environment to market useless bunches of bytes that useless blobs of plastic. Especially when they use some of that money to support useful bunches of bytes like Blender! (That said, I sure loved my Star Wars action figures!)

The environment impact of useless bunches of bytes might surprise you.

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#73

Awesome. Blender is on the cusp of releasing a major UI overhaul (2.8) that will make it more accessible to newcomers (left-click is now the default!). I'm excited to see it getting some major support from the gaming industry as well as the film industry.

More info about the changes set to come here: https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-80/

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#74
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The anticheat they use (EAC) for fortnite checks if Wine is in use, and will fail to run the game if it is. This is taken directly from the EAC dll: https://i.imgur.com/a4wBVWz.jpg

Wow, that's just evil.

Probably not evil, just incompetent. Many internet multiplayer games today place trust in the client in order to grant a smoother experience on higher latency internet connections, which makes it easier to implement cheating mechanisms. The fight against this is all about verifying the client and the environment it is running in. WINE is quite hackable, so one can see why they'd want to blacklist the platform outright. Doing it in such a trivially bypassed way is pretty silly though.

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#75
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The anticheat they use (EAC) for fortnite checks if Wine is in use, and will fail to run the game if it is. This is taken directly from the EAC dll: https://i.imgur.com/a4wBVWz.jpg

Wow, that's just evil.

Evil is a strong word. Can you explain?

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#76
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few exclusives is more than worth breaking Valve's near-monopoly and 30% toll on game revenue. That 30% is coming straight out of gamers' pockets and HN usually hates middlemen; it's baffling to see so many people in support of Valve.

30% became the industry standard not just for video games for a reason. It costs money to seamlessly do business across n countries, and it's not like Valve does nothing else to try and earn that fee either. Epic's play is to try and see if being a better looking deal for game devs will translate to being better for gamers or other groups (like linux users, open source advocates) too. We'll see. Valve has already dem…

The only reason 30% is the industry standard is because network effects and walled gardens make competition very difficult. The cost to valve, Apple, and Google aren't anywhere close to that, which in an efficient market means that the price should go down as competitors enter the space.

Steam isn't so much better than the competition that no one can compete with them--they just got into the market at the right time and network effects have taken over.

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#77
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The anticheat they use (EAC) for fortnite checks if Wine is in use, and will fail to run the game if it is. This is taken directly from the EAC dll: https://i.imgur.com/a4wBVWz.jpg

Wow, that's just evil.

Not evil - it's what has been attracting users to their platforms. PUBG had terrible anti-cheat, really hurt them for a while. In all these claims a reminder that client is trusted. EPIC does "ok" with anti-cheat - be curious to hear others impressions. Cheaters are a TOTAL drag to online multiplayer, so calling efforts to fight cheating "evil" is silly.

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#78
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30% became the industry standard not just for video games for a reason. It costs money to seamlessly do business across n countries, and it's not like Valve does nothing else to try and earn that fee either. Epic's play is to try and see if being a better looking deal for game devs will translate to being better for gamers or other groups (like linux users, open source advocates) too. We'll see. Valve has already dem…

> 30% became the industry standard not just for video games for a reason. Yeah, it became the industry standard because it rakes in mind-blowingly huge revenue for the app store owner, e.g. https://www.cultofmac.com/601492/app-store-google-play-reven... . From the article: " It’s no wonder Services — which includes App Store revenue — has become an increasingly important business for Apple as hardware sales have slow…

There are probably economies of scale, sure, which is part of why Epic can get away with a lower fee for now. But it's also just business. They know how much it costs without economies of scale, and that sets a floor.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs Here's a talk from a very old indie company, there's one section talking about how they existed pre-Steam (and other stores they use since Steam's not exclusive) and appreciate what it's enabled.

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#79

Commoditize one's compliments: https://jasongriffey.net/wp/2012/04/19/commoditizing-our-com... Unreal Engine, like Unity, right now has to be used with Autodesk products like 3DS Max or Maya, or at least that is the case with the large majority of professionals. This is an impediment to using Unreal Engine and thus makes Epic Games sort of dependent on Autodesk. There is probably no coincidence that the new general m…

I never understood when important people force deals with companies they used to work at. He doesn't work for Autodesk any more, why would he care how well they're doing? Is he being paid by autodesk? I mean I know he might be friends with people from those companies still, but he's actively hurting his own company by making these calls.

Re: Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M

#80

Commoditize one's compliments: https://jasongriffey.net/wp/2012/04/19/commoditizing-our-com... Unreal Engine, like Unity, right now has to be used with Autodesk products like 3DS Max or Maya, or at least that is the case with the large majority of professionals. This is an impediment to using Unreal Engine and thus makes Epic Games sort of dependent on Autodesk. There is probably no coincidence that the new general m…

I never understood when important people force deals with companies they used to work at. He doesn't work for Autodesk any more, why would he care how well they're doing? Is he being paid by autodesk? I mean I know he might be friends with people from those companies still, but he's actively hurting his own company by making these calls.

Still owns private stock or something analogous?
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